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Gabi Pierce
Gabrielle Lynn Pierce (born February 27, 1967) is an American retired professional basketball player who played her entire career for the Houston Comets of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Her biography on the official WNBA website states: "By acclamation, Gabi Pierce is the greatest basketball player of all time. Pierce has won four WNBA championships (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000), four WNBA Most Valuable Player Awards (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000), four WNBA Finals MVP Awards (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000), five WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Awards (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2002), and four Olympic gold medals (1988, 1996, 2000, 2004). She is one of only 11 women to attain all four accolades Pierce may be best known for being the first woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament game and the first woman to dunk twice in a college game—she set both milestones as a freshman on March 19, 1986. She also became only the second player to dunk in a WNBA game on June 22, 1997. Early Years Pierce comes from a family of athletes. Both of her parents were All-Americans in their respective sports during college at Indiana. She has two older brothers: Tyrell, who is a former basketball player, and George, who is the father of former Boston Celtics forward Paul Pierce. She was worried about playing basketball, fearing she would not live up to the level of play her father and brother demonstrated, so she focused on playing soccer. It wasn't until the fourth grade that her family convinced her to play basketball. Her father helped coach and critique her. Pierce said of the experience, "He did things to make me mad, to challenge me, because I was so much more athletic and had so much more knowledge of the game than everyone else that sometimes I just coasted. If me and my dad went to a park and he didn't think I was practicing hard enough, he'd just get in the car and leave. And I'd have to run home. I mean run home. Once I figured that out, I'd always try to go to close-by-parks." 'Middle school' Pierce played basketball on an all-boys basketball team in middle school. She also played on an all-girls team with the record 33-1. By the time Pierce was in middle school in Massachusetts, she had grown to over 6'1" but never participated in athletic activities besides tetherball and double Dutch. Her dream then was to be a television weather reporter. During the first few weeks of middle high, a classmate begged Pierce to help out the basketball team. On her first day of basketball tryouts, team members were told to split into two groups for layup drills: lefties and righties. Pierce was the only lefty in the group, so from then on, she decided to become right-hand dominant so she would not have to stand in a line by herself. That decision worked to her advantage, as she became ambidextrous. Career High School She attended Springfield Central (formerly Classical) High School (1982–1985) where she was a four-year letter winner and led her team to a 132–4 record. She was awarded the Dial Award for the national high-school scholar-athlete of the year in 1984. She was the first player, male or female, to be named an All-American by Parade magazine four times. Averaging 32.8 points and 15.0 rebounds a game, Pierce was Street & Smith's national High School Player of the Year in both 1981 and 1982. In her senior year she scored 105 points in a game against Norte Vista High School. She set Massachusetts state records for points scored in a single season (1156), and points scored in a high school career (3405). College Pierce will most likely go down as the greatest Tennessee basketball player ever, which included four Final Four appearances and two National Championships. She is the first NCAA Division I women’s player to score more than 1,000 points in a season, scoring 1,062 in her senior year. She finished her career in first place on Tennessee scoring list with 3,544 points, and is the all-time women's college basketball scoring leader.. Pierce was honored as the Capital One University Division Academic All-American of the Year, SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 1988, and 1989 andCoSIDA Academic All-American in 1987. A three-time WBCA Wade Trophy honoree and four-time WBCA State Farm First Team All-American She won the Naismith Trophy, Associated Press Player of the Year Award and USBWA Player of the Year Award in 1987 and 1989, also a John R. Wooden Award honoree in 1989 and is a finalist for the award in 1987. One of only two players all-time to earn AP First Team All-America status in each of her four years. She honored as the Most Outstanding Player of the both NCAA Tournaments and voted as the Most Outstanding Player of the Philadelphia Regional (1989), the Dayton Regional (1988) and the Trenton Regional (1987), earned mention on the 1987 All-NCAA Tournament Team and was named SEC Player of the Year in all four years, 1987 and 1989 SEC Tournament Most Outstanding Player, while she finished her career with 50 double-doubles and registered double-figure points in an NCAA record 149 games. She was also an excellent student with a 3.669 GPA in sports media and promotion, and the winner of the 1989 NCAA Elite 88 Award for highest GPA of all student-athletes competing in the Final Four.Only Tennessee basketball player (either gender) to amass 3,000 points/500 rebounds/500 assists/300 steals in her career. Tennessee statistics Professional Career Pierce was recruited for the Houston Comets of the WNBA during the 1997 inaugural season. She lead the Comets in the 1997 WNBA Championship. As a member of the Houston Comets, she has accumulated 6,000 career points, 2,000 career rebounds, 1,500 career assists and 500 career steals. Her extraordinary scoring and defensive ability have made her the first three-time WNBA MVP (1998, 1999, 2000) and the first three-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year (1998, 1999, 2000). Pierce is a four-time WNBA champion (1997–2000). Pierce is the second player in WNBA history to win both the regular season MVP award and the All-Star Game MVP award in the same season. The first player to accomplish this was Lisa Leslie. Pierce is also the first player in WNBA history to record a playoff triple-double. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist (1984, 1988). Pierce is the first women's basketball player to have a Nike shoe named after her: the "Air Gabi". USA basketball Pierce was to the 1984 Olympic team, during the olympics, she averaged 18.1 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per game, including a 31-point performance against Argentina in the championship game, the most ever by an American in an Olympic qualifier. At the Olympics, Team USA went unbeaten, winning their first gold medal since 1970. In the final game, Pierce turned in 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists against Spain. Pierce did not play at the 1986 FIBA World Championship but rejoined Team USA for the 1988 Olympics in South Korea. She became the leader of the team. Pierce facilitated the offense from the post and perimeter, called the defensive sets, and provided scoring when needed. During the Games, she recorded the first triple-double in U.S. Olympic basketball history.Team USA went on to win their second straight gold medal, again defeating China in the final game. Pierce contributed 19 points in the win, becoming the all-time leading scorer in U.S. women's basketball history. Afterwards, Stanley said Pierce "is the best player, she is the best leader and she is as smart as anybody playing the game right now." Halls of fame Pierce was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.19 She was also announced as a member of the 2010 induction class of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (the first WNBA player to be inducted), and was formally inducted on August 13 of that year. Personal Life She lives in Columbus, Ohio with her husband Jason Anderson and they have two sons Chris born in 1993 and Eric born in 1995. She is the aunt of NBA player Paul Pierce. Awards and achievements * 4× WNBA MVP (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000) * 6× WNBA All-Star (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006) * 4× WNBA Champion (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000) * 4× WNBA Finals MVP (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000) * WNBA Hall of Fame (2009) * Women's Basketball Hall of Fame (2009) * Basketball Hall of Fame (2010) P